This invention relates generally to information retrieval in a computer network. More particularly, it relates to an improved method for providing a set of bookmarks in a browser for retrieving Web pages in an Internet environment.
It is well known to couple a plurality of computer systems into a network of computer systems. In this way, the collective resources available within the network may be shared among users, thus allowing each connected user to enjoy resources which would not be economically feasible to provide to each user individually. With the growth of the Internet, sharing of computer resources has been brought to a much wider audience. The Internet has become a cultural medium in today's society for both information and entertainment. Government agencies employ Internet sites for a variety of informational purposes. For many companies, one or more Internet sites are an integral part of their business; these sites are frequently mentioned in the companies' television, radio and print advertising.
The World Wide Web, or simply "the Web", is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. It is the most commonly used method of transferring data in the Internet environment. Other methods exist such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the Web. Client machines accomplish transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files, e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, using a standard page description language known as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify "links" to other servers and files. In the Internet paradigm, a network path to a server is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection.
Retrieval of information is generally achieved by the use of an HTML-compatible "browser", e.g., Netscape Navigator, at a client machine. When the user of the browser specifies a link via a URL, the client issues a request to a naming service to map a hostname in the URL to a particular network IP address at which the server is located. The naming service returns a list of one or more IP addresses that can respond to the request. Using one of the IP addresses, the browser establishes a connection to a server. If the server is available, it returns a document or other object formatted according to HTML. Web browsers have become the primary interface for access to many network and server services.
The entry of the URL in the entry field of a browser can be a difficult task for many users. While the URL for the main Web page of a major company can be relatively brief, e.g., www.ibm.com, subsidiary pages can have very lengthy URLs in, at least to the average user, an arcane syntax. Recognizing the difficulties involved, the developers of browsers have provided one useful means of returning to a favorite URL, by the creation of user stored "bookmarks" in the browser.
Web browsers offer many options in the user interface for creating a bookmark list. Basic options let the user add and access a page through a pop-up menu on the location toolbar or through a menu pulldown from the main menu bar. A simple way to add a bookmark for a favorite page is to enter the URL to travel to the page, once there, open the Bookmarks menu and choose the Add Bookmarks selection. This set of actions adds the URL of the current page as an item in the Bookmarks menu.
Once created, bookmarks offer a means of page retrieval. The user can cause the browser to display his bookmark list and select among his bookmarks to go directly to a favorite page. Thus, the user is not forced to enter a lengthy URL nor retrace the original tortuous route through the Internet by which he may have arrived at the Web site. Once a bookmark is added to a bookmark list, in general, the bookmark becomes a permanent part of the browser until removed. The permanence and accessibility of bookmarks have made them a valuable means for personalizing a user's Internet access through the browser.
Yet despite their usefulness, the current arrangement of bookmarks is not without its flaws. As the numbers of web sites and web pages on these sites have increased dramatically, so has the number of bookmarks that a typical web browser user maintains on his browser. It is not uncommon that hundreds of bookmarks be stored in a bookmark file after a few weeks of web browsing. While folders in some browsers have helped the user group his bookmarks by category, in reality, the bookmark file is one huge list of bookmarks, all accessible to the user through the browser. This present invention is concerned with providing structure and additional function to this amorphous entity, the bookmark file.
One problem not addressed by the current bookmark schemes is access control. In the current browser environment, all bookmarks are accessible to the user at all times. There are certain environments, e.g., a work environment or a home environment with young children, in which this power is not an unmixed blessing.
The most common way of adding bookmarks to the bookmark file in the browser is manually intensive. Each bookmark is added one at a time. A user visits a web site, then selects that site as a bookmark entry and, if desired, categorizes it manually. Furthermore, the current technology used in browsers to update bookmarks, i.e. removing the old address and entering the new one, is very slow and inefficient.
Bookmarks are currently used merely as an aid for navigation on a site by site basis. Once at a web site, the bookmark list is unused in navigation until a new web site in the user's bookmark list is desired. Bookmarks lend a uniform navigation means to an otherwise unordered Web; it is unfortunate that their utility has been untapped for intrasite navigation.
These problems as well as others are addressed in various embodiments of the present invention.